Process of gasifying and carbonizing coal and like fuel substances



Dec. 29,1925- I H. MACAUX PRocEss OF GASIFTIQING AND CARBONIZiNG' COAL, AND LIKE FUEL SUBSTANCES Filed oct'. 5, 1922 Patented Dec. 29, 1925.

UNITED' STATES PATENT or 1,567,967 FICE.

HENRI MAGAUX, OF PARIS, FRANCE. ASSIGNOR TO SOCIEIE LYONNAISE DES EAUX ET DE LECLAIRAGE, OF PARIS. FRANCE.

PROCESS OI GASIFYING AND CARBONIZING CAL AND LIKE FUEL SUBSTANCES.

Application filed October 3. 1922. Serial No. 592,076.

1 '0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I. lInNnr Mm'mtx. a

citizen of the Republic of France, and residand useful Processcsof (iasifying and Carboniz ing Coal and like Fuel Subslanccs, of

which the following is a specification.

In the methods en'iploved 1n coke produc- -..ing plants and gas works, the usual practice.

is to decompose at a red heatinto carbon and tree hydrogen a considerable percentage of the hydrocarbons contained in the coal or set free during the heating treatment of the same, andthis affords as arule a gas containing fifty volumes of tree hydrogen per one hundred volumes of lighting gas. This decomposition increases with the amount of coal under the heating treatmentand with the time of saidti'eatment which v-aries'from four to fifty hours during which the heatis transmitted from the outside to the centre of the mass. The hydrocarbon gas which is produced within the mass is caused to pass through the envelope of coke at a red heat which is already formed, 'and the gas is de composed into its elements upon contact with the same. The above is the object of coking processes in which the maximum yield in weight of coke is to be obtained.

But the contrary result may be sought for, and especially 'in' city .gas works. WVhile obtaining a marketable or available coke, it is proposed to volatilize the maximum amount of carbon in combination with the hydro en from coal or the additional h ydrogen W ich may be produced by the deeon1- position of water vapour by coke or may be obtained from a suitable outside source.

The process according to the present invention is adapted to obtain these results. In the said process, coal in a finely divided state is projected in a continuous manner into a chamber heated to redness which re ceives a continuous supply of hydrogen in the pure state or mixed with other gases and chiefly with Water gas obtained by the decomposition of water by coke at a red heat, the hydrogen supply'being in all cases so regulated that its partial tension in the atmosphere of the chamber shall be,

greater than what would result from the dissociation of the hydrocarbons contained in the projected particles of coal or would be formed by their decomposition by heat. The partial tension of the hydrogen supplied from the outside thus produced and maintained in The said chamber will act to prevent the dissociation of the sub stances of lhe coal into hydrogen and carbon. and on the other hand, by a continuous in jection of coal in a very finely divided state. one will obtain the gasifying of its volatile parts if not in an instantaneous manucigat least at a very rapid rate and in proper progression.

The major partof the gasit'ying is thus effected in a fraction ota second instead of during several hours or period of ten hours as in the known methodszflmd it is rapidlv completed upon the surface or the walls and of the mass of coke in formation. The temperature of the hydrogenation gas will progressively increase so as to act at the beginstream of coal powder are regulated so that in the residual particles of the coal upon contact of the same with the red hot walls of the chamber or with the already formed coke, Will retain the binding parts which are necessary for the agglomeration of the coke in formation, and the latter may be increased by the compression due to the impact. i

The said process can thus be used -for the removal-0f the adhesive parts of classes of coals which are too rich in volatile substances to produce coke of the nietallurgic grade. As concerns the shape and the temperature of the chambers used for the heating process, the practice which is current in gas or coke'plants can be followed. The size of the coal particles may be for example that of the extra fine Carmaux coal which 'obtained by the current methods in the same chambers or retorts, so that calculation may be made, for a given chamber or reto'rt, of the respective outputs of the coal stream and the injected hydrogenation gas. Pressures in the chambers are adjusted at the extraction outlets as in the known methods.

The hydrogenation gas can be produced in the chambers or retorts themselves, when these become filled with red hot coke at the end of the treatment, and the resulting gas may be injected into other chambers or retorts wherein the treatment is taking place or the said gas can also be produced at the outside by special generators. But it is adrisablo to obtain the maximum percentage of hydrogen in this gas. It can be heated before injection by any suitable means.

The accompanying drawing shows" by way of example a ve tical section of a "form of construction of furnace with horizontal chamber, but obviously the process is also pplicable to chambers or retort-s of the vertical or the inclined type. v

1 indicates a furnace chamber whose walls are heated to redness. The coal in very line powder is placed in a hopper 2 and delivered-into said I chamber by a centrifugal projector 8 which is mounted at one end of the latter. 4-4: indicates the path of the coal particles. The hydrogenation gas supplied by a conduit 5, and the produced gas is discharged at-the other end by the conduit '6. The coke mass is shown at 7 at a certain time during its formation; towards the end of the process, the forward slope of said mass is near the point 8. The

ends of said chamber are closed by the doors 9, and when open they enable the use of a pusher 10 in order to dispose the coke mass upon the quenching surface 11.

The top of said chamber may be pro.

vided with the usual feeding passages 12.

Before reaching the conduit 5, the hydrogenation gas may be heated by circulating it through a chamber filled with .red hot coke which is reaching the end of the heating stage, or through a regeneration device of a known type containing piled bricks or employing transmission offbeat through the walls.

Claim- A process for the gasifying of coal and like fuel, which consists in the continuous insufiiation of finely divided coal into chambers heated to redness, in the simultaneous injection into these chambers during the whole time the process is carried out, of a. supplementary gas containing hydrogen and in'such a proportion that the partial tension of the hydrogen shall be constantly maintained at a higher degree than the tension which would result from the disassociation of'the hydrocarbons contained in the coal and disengaged by the pyrolytic decomposition of the coal, and in evacuating the gases produced without allowing the same to traverse a layer of red hot coke, for the purioses set forth. 1

In testimony that I claim Hem MAOAUX.

the foregoing as I ,my invention, I have s gned my name. 

